Remembering where we’ve been is fundamental both to our ability to function and to our personal identity. That alone might be enough motivation to want to know how the brain forms memories of places, but for neuroscientists an even deeper motivation is that the process illustrates multiple mechanisms of “plasticity,” which is a term for the many ways neurons change the strength of their connections with other neurons to represent memories in circuits. With a new fellowship award from the Klingenstein Philanthropies and the Simons Foundation Assistant Professor Linlin Fan will launch research to advance understanding of how the brain employs plasticity to learn places.
“The overall goal is to understand how inhibitory synaptic plasticity manifests in behaving mammals during learning and memory,” said Fan, an investigator in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and a faculty member in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
The study may have medical implications as well. Because the dynamic involves a critical role for endocannabinoids, a brain chemical that can modulate the neurotransmitter release of neurons, the research could also shed light on epilepsy and on marijuana use, Fan said. Epileptic seizures are believed to increase endocannabinoid release, which could affect plasticity processes that depend on its levels. Meanwhile, marijuana use supplies the brain with external cannabinoids that could compete with the natural cannabinoid dynamics necessary for place memory plasticity.
